The Sino Iron project’s desalination plant will be one of the most innovative and cost effective plants of its kind in the world.
The plant, under construction at Cape Preston in the Pilbara, will use sophisticated filtration technology to supply process water with a final capacity of 140 megalitres per day, equivalent to the water contained in 56 Olympic sized swimming pools.
In a world first for this size and type of plant, the majority of construction is occurring in China with giant modules being fabricated, assembled and tested prior to shipping. The first module successfully arrived to site in June and at the completion of the project about 60 modules of varying sizes will have made the ocean journey from China.
CITIC Pacific Mining (CPM) site based Community Relations Advisor, Simon Corrigan, said the project was unique in combining known technologies with a new
construction method in order to
achieve the tight timeline.
“The modular construction was seen as the most cost-effective method in terms of budget, schedule and accommodation pressures and fabrication on site,” Mr Corrigan said.
Once operating, the plant will use reverse osmosis to produce desalinated water, which filters seawater pumped under high pressure through a series of semi-permeable membranes.
“When compared to other desalination plants in Australia, the CPM plant will be constructed in roughly half the time, at roughly half the cost. This is a great achievement for CPM, and a credit to the teams who are participating in a valuable knowledge exchange while working to overcome the challenges of this unique infrastructure project,” Mr Corrigan said.
